by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | February 08, 2019
From the January/February 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCB News: Last year, immediate past-chair Denise Hines predicted cybersecurity would be the prime discussion topic at the show with AI, precision medicine and interoperability other big topics. What are your predictions for this year’s show?
CR: Denise was right (she always is), so cybersecurity, AI and interoperability will be big topics for a few years to come. For this year’s show, I think we’ll also see a diversification of participants, which is exciting. We’ll see more attendees from outside North America as the interest in HIMSS continues to spread globally. We’ll see diversification in the vendors who attend. Over the last few years, in the HITECH meaningful use era, pretty much everyone was focused on the same big questions at the same time. I think the increase in diversity will mean lots of interconnected themes and conversations, and not one or two big discussion topics on everyone’s minds.
HCB News: Is AI a front burner issue or back burner a year later?
CR: AI in healthcare is a real thing that’s being used now. For example, there are basic uses like computer assisted coding, or voice recognition dictation. Those take costs out of healthcare systems and improve productivity and performance.
The parts that are on the clinical side right now are probably more aimed at discovery, where researchers are using large data sets and AI to generate hypotheses and findings. I think what everyone is sort of looking for is when will those tools become part of the physician’s toolkit or appear at the bedside? And we’re already seeing that in areas like radiology, genomics, lab medicine and other areas. The level of interest by the manufacturers and innovators is really high. The amount of capital available to commercialize these breakthroughs is significant. So I think we’re going to see more mainstream AI in healthcare in the next two to three years.
HCB News: What are you most looking forward to about this year’s show?
CR: The opportunity to connect with so many peers, and make new connections, over the course of a few days is something I can’t get anywhere but at HIMSS Global Conference. I always make a point to visit the innovation showcase and interoperability showcases, which are working on some of the most important challenges in health IT. I like to spend a lot of time with new startups that are full of fresh ideas.
HCB News: Thinking about the next five to 10 years, what will be the biggest changes in health IT?
CR: There are some immutable changes that are affecting all industries, like the rapid move to cloud and software-as-a-service computing, and the introduction of AI and advanced analytics. I think privacy will be challenged and redefined as we see several of the global social media companies under scrutiny for privacy practices and the secondary use of data. The European General Protection Data Protection regulations may be the tip of the iceberg.
But more than anything else, I think the most major changes will come as health IT becomes networked and interoperable. We have just completed the “automation” phase in our industry as paper has been replaced by EHRs. Next we are going to start connecting those EHRs directly or through intermediaries. A lot of those EHRs are going to be in the cloud, making networking and interoperability substantially easier. Every other industry that has become networked has experienced significant disruption and innovation – think retail, finance, manufacturing, entertainment, on and on. We should expect to see significant changes in the role and composition of health IT departments, the kinds of services we will consume, and a broadening in the range and depth of competitors and innovators we encounter. My hope is that we will collectively keep our eyes focused on the needs of the patients; if we do, this new era in health IT may contribute greatly toward human health and wellness.
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